The Mysterious Benedict Society

There are more revelations about what is going on at the Institute. Reynie encounters a Helper who he knows from the orphanage. Reynie is bewildered that the Helpers cannot remember how long they have worked at the Institute. They are both cowed and miserable, and they clearly fear punishment for potentially offending the children. Yet they respond strangely when asked if they’re troubled that they cannot remember exactly when they came to the school: “At this, both Helpers shook their heads and said, ‘Everything is just as it should be’” (248).

The team realizes that Mr. Bloomberg must have come to the Institute for an inspection and that Mr. Curtain stole his memory. In fact, he “had transformed all those meddlesome people into his own private workforce, and they didn’t even realize it” (250). Still, their distress is obvious to the children, who sense that the Helpers are confused and terribly sad. This sadness leads Sticky to conclude that the special recruits’ memories were only partially erased, because if “you only lose a little of your memory, you just get confused for a while—confused but not sad” (251).

Reynie cannot fathom how Mr. Bloomberg could forget his wife and children. This makes Reynie reflect on families. Being an orphan, Reynie feels particularly sensitive about the subject. He recalls a conversation he once had with Mr. Benedict, who himself was an orphan. Reynie suspects being orphaned made Mr. Benedict long for a family, a feeling Reynie knows intimately. They share an evolved sense of family, in which “[f]amily members can be your best friends [… and] best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family” (257).

Reynie devises a plan to get a look at the contents of Mr. Curtain’s journal, which the team feels will yield valuable information. Since Mr. Curtain views him in a positive light, Reynie is the one who approaches Mr. Curtain with the intention of getting him to open up his journal for Sticky to read and instantly memorize.

During this conversation, Reynie is struck by Mr. Curtain’s vanity and self-absorption. He recognizes Mr. Curtain as a master manipulator who excels at concealing the truth:

“He’s all about illusions […] The Institute’s lack of rules is an illusion, not to mention its excellent reputation. And the Emergency, too—the hidden messages make everything seem more hopeless and out of control than it really is” (267).

Sticky successfully memorizes a few pages of the journal and learns more about how the Helpers’ memories were erased. They learn that some Helpers regained their memories when exposed to a trigger, which explains why there are no mirrors in the Institute: “Reflection must be promoting self-identification. Solution: Remove mirrors” (268).

The look at Mr. Curtain’s journal entries also reveals the mechanisms at work in bringing about the Improvement. “At last—all facilities now complete! Proper officials in proper places. Public mood at proper levels” (270). Brainwashed officials and the promulgation of the Emergency have created the necessary environment for the boosted messages, which will put the general populace under Mr. Curtain’s control.

The team’s run of good luck is disrupted when Sticky is accused of cheating and taken away to the mysterious Waiting Room. The room is a space designed for psychological torture, full of stinking mud and crawling insects. Trapped in this for hours, Sticky felt like he was in a nightmare, “with every second crawling by—and other things crawling by, things you can’t see—constantly sinking into that goop, the smell so horrible, like something dead, like maybe it’s yourself that’s dead—” (291).

The experience makes Sticky feel that he has no choice but to run away. He is so traumatized that he fears returning to the Waiting Room will kill him. Reynie tries to make Sticky see that he must stay, that he is wanted and needed, but Sticky worries he is not strong enough to withstand an interrogation by Mr. Curtain. When Jackson taunts Sticky with comments about the Waiting Room, Sticky finds the courage to stand up for himself. This defiance encourages Reynie, who recognized that there “was strength in Sticky. It was just easy to miss. Easiest of all for Sticky himself” (293).

Sticky leaves his audience with Mr. Curtain unscathed, and another boy is blamed for Reynie’s spying on the Executives in the gym. Rather than being relieved, Reynie feels guilty. He has committed several actions that went against his sense of moral integrity, and he feels that someone else suffered each time.

It appears that Reynie’s guilt over what happened to Martina was misplaced, because rather than being sent to the Waiting Room as Reynie had feared, Martina was promoted to Executive. Considering the team’s role in falsely denouncing Martina, her new position of authority does not bode well.